Richard Bannister

Our day at Chimelong Paradise began with a number of exclusive sessions on the Dive Coaster, the 10 Inversion Roller Coaster, the Half Pipe, and the Motorbike Launch Coaster. The latter had just come out of its annual maintenance check, and thus could only load half the train, but that wasn't a problem for us. Once the sessions came to an end, a few of us went over to the Youngstar Coaster (#1846). I'd been particularly looking forward to riding this, as I'd enjoyed the three previous installations of the same design. I'm glad to say that I wasn't disappointed, and I'd have ridden a second time if the loading speed had been a little less painful.

We had ample spare time at Chimelong Paradise and a few of us decided to use it to visit a few small parks on our own. The first of these was Country Garden Farm, a free-to-enter park with a nominal charge for each ride. Outer Space Flying Car (#1847) and the Jungle Mouse (#1848) were pretty much as expected, though it was interesting to be handed two thick cushions when boarding the latter. The reason for these became abundantly clear when the ride car hit the first corner; I was very glad to have them!

Beijiao Park appeared to be deserted at first glance, but we found a small shop selling snacks, beverages, and ride tickets. Once we'd made our purchase an operator materialised from nowhere and started up the Jungle Mouse (#1849). This version was identical to the version we'd ridden an hour earlier, though the operator did not provide the extra cushions. Hopefully my ribs will recover at some point.

We met back up with the group at Chuanlord Holiday Manor, a large park with six roller coasters. Unfortunately the two largest were closed for maintenance today, frustrating but not that surprising on a quiet day in the middle of the week. Furthermore, a massive construction site could be seen in the middle of the park, which we were told was for a new coaster with four inversions. It'll probably be a few years before I'm back in the area, by which time the new ride should be finished; time will tell.

We went around the four operational coasters as a group, quickly ticking off the Jungle Mouse (#1850), the powered Sliding Dragon, the two middle tracks on Shenzhou Surfing (#1851), and the Spinning Surfboat (#1852). We managed to stall the latter at the ride apex, but an operator was able to get the ride moving again by poking it with a big stick.

The park had quite a few off-the-shelf rides as well as some unique custom attractions. One was the Flying Boat, pictured above, which featured a vehicle suspended about fifty feet above the lake at the centre of the park. It wasn't particularly thrilling, but it was certainly different. The other really interesting attraction was a superb dark walkthrough, the Ghost Ship Gothenburg, that was particularly well done and genuinely frightening in places.